I was merciful to a mouse
Apparently I've done the wrong thing?

We had a mouse in our house a few weeks ago. It was a little gray field mouse with a body about 5-cm long.

To get rid of it, I purchased a live release trap. I baited it with cheese and within a couple of hours, the little creature was in residence. I provided water, a cracker and the next morning, drove a few kms outside of town and released it into a field (as per the trap's instructions).

According to a few people, I did the wrong thing and should have killed it.

But I couldn't because:

- Poison takes seven days to kill the rodent. It causes major internal hemorrhaging and is a painful, inhumane way to take a creature's life; even ones as yucky as rodents. Also, they may die in your walls which leaves an awful stench.

- Years ago, we had a rat move in. We set the traditional quick-kill style traps. The rat not only did not die quickly, it dragged itself along the carpet leaving heavy streaks of blood. My DH removed the body, I had to scrub the blood out of the carpet, which was horrible. I couldn't do that again.

So that left a live trap. Three weeks later, there has been no further sign of a mouse.

What would you have done?

(Disclaimer: we are very tidy people! It's not usual that we have rodents in our house, I promise.)

People use carbon monoxide from their car exhaust to humanly put indian myna birds to sleep. It's unforntuate that the rat trap did not kill the rat instantly, but IMO that is usually the best, quickest way.

I think you did a good thing...and millions of Buddhists and Hindus the world over would agree.

There are plenty that will say that any species that makes a nuisance of itself, preys on native species, depletes natural resources and so forth deserves no mercy. But humans excel at all of those things

Mice are extremely good at not being noticed until they hit plague proportions.

A field mouse is just an outdoor house mouse, BTW. Unless its a native mouse, in which case, its a marsupial, not a mouse. I'm not entirely sure I agree with releasing them to continue breeding though, or shifting the problem elsewhere, because that makes it someone else's problem - the mouse is unlikely to stay in that field.

we had a mouse we set it free - we have rats in a couple trees - they get poisioned bait before we poisioned them in the time i was pregant we had found 6 dead ones (think neighbour poisioned them ) unfortuanatly DH would leave work early then i would let the dog out for the day he would find them so i would have to get rid of them.

I was tired of them being in the 2 trees so we put poision in there we havent had any since. Almost everything in the world i am ok with ( non poisiones spiders/snakes mice etc) but i remember living in the NT and a neighbours child being biten - the kid was 3 months old woke up screaming mum runs in there and rat is biting the poor baby i wasnt going to have rats near us

Oh dear... maybe I should just admit then that I didn't have the heart to kill it? I'm a serious wuss and was in the house on my own with two kids. I didn't want to go through the rat incident again.

Spikey: I released it a couple of kms outside of town so it had a long way to travel. This mouse I saw on several occasions racing along the floor and found nibbled biscuits (thanks to my kids leaving food behind stuff) and poo everywhere. It was in the house we're refurbishing so there was lots of building materials to hide under. I've since cleaned out as much as possible and haven't found any poo.

If you like them alive, next time just put it outside in YOUR backyard. Don't shift the problem to someone elses property. One breeding pair can produce 40 or so babies per year. Your action may create 20 more mice. Great.

Mice are vermin. I kill them. With traps, a few times by tossing a stunned one to a friends python, and once by squishing one to a wall with a sugar canister. About a month ago there was one behind my fridge and the cats took turns guarding it until it got desperate enough to make an escape. He ate the lot. The only good mouse, is a pet/ bred for food or dead mouse.

I would have just released it into the backyard.Because1. there is no such thing as 1 mouse - there are probably a whole bundle somewhere and they just don't have much reason to come into the house. Quite commonly they mind their own business until it's raining IME2. You may not have released it into an appropriate environment - it may have been unable to find food or shelter and died anyway OR if it survives and is a pregnant female (all mice are pregnant females - ask anyone who's adopted one!) it may then displace any native mice in the area.

If you release it and it returns it will probably quite happily get trapped again - and then take it to your local vet for humane euthanasia.

I hope it was the 'same' mouse you saw, but chances are it was several other members of its family.

Mice travel long distances, but who knows - it may be eaten by something before it gets to anywhere it can do damage. I had a live and let live policy for mice - up until the time they invaded my house and the cat dropped a live one down the front of my PJs while I was in bed. Screamworthy, I'm afraid. That removed my 'softiness' towards that particular kind of living thing.

Might be worth a chat to some exterminators to do the deed for you, if you can't do it yourself (which I totally understand). Its also worth getting them to bait your roof and garage - lots of mice make really good homes there. That way at least they aren't likely (or as likely) to die inside your house.

If you like them alive, next time just put it outside in YOUR backyard. Don't shift the problem to someone elses property. One breeding pair can produce 40 or so babies per year. Your action may create 20 more mice. Great.

Mice are vermin. I kill them. With traps, a few times by tossing a stunned one to a friends python, and once by squishing one to a wall with a sugar canister. About a month ago there was one behind my fridge and the cats took turns guarding it until it got desperate enough to make an escape. He ate the lot. The only good mouse, is a pet/ bred for food or dead mouse.

Poor wickle mousies ! The sugar canister is a bit extreme !!

We have a cat to take care of mousies, but in our old house we found them getting in through a gap in the fireplace. My Dh used that expanding foam to fill the holes, and ever since then we refer to it as "Selley's Mouse Killer". I'm pretty sure that we didn't actually kill any, but its still funny. Mice carry hemorrhagic diseases and are just pests, even if they *are* cute.

We had a hell of a time with them with the chooks - they built a nest under the chook house, and when I discovered it and lifted up the house, the chooks were in there ! ZUt ! PECK ! STAB ! No more mice. That was an eye opening experience. I knew chooks were meat eaters, but was surprised they'd eat a whole mouse.

We had a mouse problem at an old rental. 1 mouse always equals more. They are good at hiding and not being seen. I would bait the place. We used those snap baits and after we had caught 7 over a period of months I couldn't deal with it anymore.We hired a professional and never saw or smelt one dead mouse. I only ever actually saw 1 live mouse running around. The rest must have been hiding in wall cavities, roof etc. I knew they were all gone when no poo was showing up. The baits were locked so kids or animals couldn't get into them except the mice. The pros came back to check the baits and all of it was gone so there were quite a few of them.

Ubermum, if you're so tough, can I get you to come and deal with it next time? The critters scare me. I know I should have killed it but I thought the next best solution was to release it several kilometres from the nearest house into a field with lots of bushland surrounding it. I hoped a snake would get it, actually; at least then it would have been useful for something.

Spikey, I just can't use bait. I can't, it's too cruel. I guess next time I'll have to set a traditional trap or drop it in a bag and tie it to the car exhaust.

EPG: Will a vet really perform euthanasia on a mouse? I'd love another method for getting rid of them.

I'm with Therese, if I wasn't there on my own, I'd get my DH to do it. He has no problems.

ETA: I'm a bit worried that everyone is confirming there is probably more. Looks like I will have to find another solution.

Mice spread lots of diseases, from more minor stuff such as worms to a deadly form of meningitis. Therefore I do think it is necessary to kill mice and rats around the home and yard. I couldn't kill it myself though. I can't even kill cane toads, and I even unconsciously swerve to avoid the buggers when I see them on the road.

Just get traditional traps and bait them with peanut butter, not cheese. Some mice are so smart they can steal the bait without setting off the trap, not when it's a sticky paste. By the time you hear the "snap", it's all over. It's fast and I think more kind than poison.

Yes, but then I have to get rid of the body *shiver* and I'll stay awake all night waiting for the trap to go snap. And what happens if it's like the rat that didn't die instantly and I have to clean its blood up? I know, you're dealing with a pathetic wuss here.

I know, maybe if I found a neighbour who isn't as pathetic as me to take the mouse and dispose of it? I like that idea.

To do the carbon monoxide thing (RSPCA recommended way of getting rid of pest birds), you put them (in the live trap) in a garbage bag, tie them to the car exhaust of a COLD engine car. Don't use the car you have been driving round in all day, wait till morning and do it first thing. It is a painless, humane way to kill them.